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One of the updates New World received was the addition of Mutators. These enhancements to Expeditions are part of Endgame activities that players can enjoy, making their gameplay more challenging and rewarding. Here’s everything players need to know about Mutators.

What’s An Expedition Mutator?

Mutators alter the normal and named enemies that players are familiar with in Expeditions by augmenting them in some way. Encounters with these enemies will be altered, changing how players will need to plan their strategies before entering the battle.

When an Expedition is mutated, it becomes a more challenging version of itself. There are ten levels of difficulties for a Mutated Expedition, each of which will have varying numbers of Mutations. Each difficulty level has a recommended gear score that players should take into account before engaging in the Mutated Expedition. Their victory is highly dependent on it. Each week, two different Expeditions are Mutated, and the rewards increase with each level, including the number of Umbral Shards players receive.

Accessing Mutated Expeditions

To have access to the Mutated Expedition, players must have successfully completed the vanilla version of the Expedition first. Upon completion, they’ll receive the Codex that allows them to enter the first difficulty level of the Mutated Expedition. Once they complete that first level of the Mutated Expedition, the Codex difficulty level will automatically increase by 1, allowing them access to the second level of difficulty. This progresses until the final level is achieved.

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Alternatively, players can be invited to join the Mutated Expedition by a player who already has access. Once the Mutated Expedition is completed, the player will receive the Codex for the difficulty level that is one higher than their previous level of access, regardless of what level of difficulty they just played at. For example, if they joined a Mutated Expedition at difficulty level 5 but personally only had access to level 1, upon completion, their Codex would increase to level 2.

Scoring In A Mutated Expedition

Players will receive a score that is shared among the group once they complete a Mutated Expedition. It will determine their ranking and rewards. Bronze is awarded for anything below 25,000 points. Silver is awarded for 25,000 to 49,999 points, and Gold is for 50,000+ points. A Silver ranking is required to progress to the next level of Mutated Expedition.

Several different factors determine the overall score. The team will have to work together to ensure as many points as possible are collected, paying close attention to the following factors:

Respawns: when a player dies, the score will be reduced moderately Team Wipes: the score will be reduced significantly for each team wipe that happens during a boss encounter Time: calculated at the end of the run, and the faster the run, the better the score AI Kills: there is a set target value for the number of kills expected for the Mutated Expedition

The Different Mutations

Depending on the difficulty level of the Mutated Expedition, there will be a different number of Mutations at work. For difficulty levels 1 through 5, there will only be Elemental Mutations active. For levels 6 through 8, Elemental and Promotions Mutations will be active. For levels 9 and 10, Elemental, Promotions, and Curse types will be active.

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Before entering a Mutated Expedition, players can review the information screen for the level to see what the active Mutations are. It will also advise them if they are at the appropriate level with their gear to achieve success. Players should heed any warning messages received at this point before venturing any further.

Elemental Mutations

Elemental Mutations change up the game of the Expedition by infusing the enemies with an elemental power. They’ll be able to inflict that elemental damage and have increased resistance to it.

The possible Elemental Mutations that could occur in a Mutated Expedition include the following:

Eternal: infuses enemies with Void Overgrown: emphasizes Nature damage and resistance Icebound: adds Ice Elemental effects to enemy damage Hellfire: adds the Fire Element to enemies Barbaric: emphasizes Physical damage

Promotions Mutations

Promotions take things to a new level by granting the enemies in the expedition even more powerful new abilities. These abilities can make things a lot more challenging for players.

Promotions in a Mutated Expedition can include the following:

Oppressive: adds the abilities of mana drains and zones of silence Indomitable: enemies survive damage with the use of life-stealing abilities and can summon a protective phalanx that stops player projectiles Savage: mobs can cause healing reduction and cast damaging beams around themselves

Curse Mutations

Curses add the most challenge to a Mutated Expedition by inflicting debuffs on the players. The team must come together to overpower the effects of the Curse to succeed in the Mutated Expedition. At the most challenging difficulties, players will experience Empowered Curses, which make things even more difficult.

The possible curses in a Mutated Expedition include the following:

Frenzied: players that dodge will be affected by this Curse, and it stacks, dealing damage over time. At its max stack, it will damage nearby players Fiendish: sets its sights on the nocturnal Desiccated: occasionally, players will combust with Elemental energy. When Empowered, Cursed players must be cleansed, which they can do by getting close to the combusting player Censored: players’ abilities turn against them

New World is available now on PC.

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